
Honor the Brave Whose Valor Saved 
Our Republic. 




aril 
ary 

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Memorial Day Address 



Ol' 



PATRICK H. CONEY, 



m 



OF TOPEKA, KANSAS, ^ 

DKI.IVERKD AT ^ 

BOONE, IOWA, MAY 30th, 1921, | 

AND rRlBU'lE TO |^ 

EMILYSOPHRONIA UTTCHCOCK CONEY 

AT LINWOOD PARK CEMETERY, 

UNVEILING A MONUMENT 

TO HER MEMORY. 




^ iHemorial ^bbresisi 

Jgp Patrick ?&• Conep. 



PRESS OF FRANKLIN HUDSON, 
KANS/JS CITY, MO. 



,0 75' 




PATRICK H. CONEY. 






BOONE, IOWA, MEMORIAL DAY SERVICE, 
1921. 
Upon repeated urgent Invitations, by the Grand 
Army of the Republic comrades and their associate la- 
dies of the Women's Relief Corps, Ladies of the Grand 
Amy of the Republic, and affiliated societies of the East- 
ern Star and Pythian Sisters, and members of the Amer- 
ican Legion, acting for the good loyal people of Boone 
and vicinity, their comrade and brother, Patrick H. Coney, 
Past Department Commander of the Grand Army of the 
Republic and active prominent National G. A. R. official, 
of Topeka, Kansas, responded to their call and delivered 
the following Memorial Address to a large assembled 
audience at their line large Armory Hall, at 2:00 p. m. 

Colonel P. D. Swick, for the committee In charge 
of Memorial Day exercises, presided. General John A. 
Logan's famous Order No. i, proclaiming May 30th as 
a National Memorial Day, was read, followed by patri- 
otic songs rendered by the Boone Chorus Society, and 
then Lincoln's Gettysburg Address was read, and the 
Boone Military Band played fine Memorial music. 

Colonel Swick then introduced the speaker in a short 
and eloquent eulogy of his standing and his services as a 
soldier, a citizen, and a comrade of the Grand Army of 
the Republic, as excelled by none. Mr. Coney then 
spoke as follows : 



—3- 



Memorial Day Address of Patrick H. Coney, 

Delivered at Boone, Iowa, 

May 30, 1921. 

Mr. Chainnan, Comrades, and Compatriots: 

This holy day of sacred memories, brings us as true 
patriots to a solemn, reverential service of loving devo- 
tion, that should inspire us all in commemoration of the 
lives and services of those whose holy sepulchres we are 
to decorate with fragrant flowers of heavenly incense. 

"So we bring our garlands fair 

To lay on each dear grave, 
And plant with love each breast above 

The Flag that long shall wave. 
We bow the head above the dead, 

Whose deeds shall ever live. 
And flowers of spring to-day we bring 

And to their mem.ories give." 

It was a delightful duty for me to accept your cordial 
invitation to join with you in this most sacred of all our 
national legal holy days, in the exemplification of our 
sincere devotion, in honoring the memory of the lives 
and sacrificing services of our cherished ones, whose bodies 
rest in the m.ost beautiful and glorified necropolis of the 
lamented dead of this historic city and vicinity, famed 
for Its loyalty and enterprise as a progressive people, 
whose ambitions are not limited to sordid desires for en- 
larged accumulation of earthly possessions, at the cost 
of its spiritual, moral, and patriotic supremacy for the 
maintenance of the principles of our Republic and your 
own historic State, wrought by the severest self-denial, 
heroic sacrifices in persistent devotloii of its pioneers to 
the welfare, liberty, and rights of man, above Mammon. 
Their perseverance through all the vicissitudes of their 



primitive lives in courageous contentions that cost a mil. 
ion of lives and many thousands of billions of money, 
to create and maintain this our glorious Nation of inde- 
pendent States, none grander than your own. 

"How sleep our brave who sank to rest, 
By all their country's wishes blest! 
When Spring, with dewy fingers cold, 
Returns to deck their hallow^ed mold, 
She there shall dress a sweeter sod 
Than Fancy's feet have ever trod. 
Then Honor comes, a pilgrim gra}". 
To bless the turf that wraps their clay. 
And Freedom shall awhile repair 
To dwell a weeping hermit there." 

"Yon marble minstrel's voiceless stone 

In deathless song shall tell, 
When many a vanquished year hath flown, 

The story how they fell; 
Nor wreck, nor change, nor Winter's blight, 

Nor Time's remorseless doom, 
Can dim one ray of holy light 

That gilds their glorious tomb." 

This National Holy Day. 

In the pregnant and fragrant days of the spring 
season, when all nature Is in bud and bloom in our conti- 
nental climate, when neither winter's chill, nor summer's 
scorching sun withers, perishes, nor Impairs its precious 
gifts of beautiful flowers and balmy, angelic zephyrs, 
that bring forth our most loving thoughts of reverence 
and obeisance to the Deity and to our benefactors for 
the choice blessings we are permitted to enjoy. 

It was over fifty-eight years ago since Mrs. George 
F. Evans, of Des Moines, Iowa, an adorable, heroic nurse 
of the field, during the Civil War of 1861 to 1866, led a 
band of faithful, patriotic women to Arlington Heights 
Cemetery, in April, 1863, and there decorated our sol^ 
diers' and sailors' graves with their loving hands, in com- 

—6— 



menaoration of the loyal sacrifice for our national unity; 
they repeated this noble and exalting exercise annually 
thereafter, until our gallant and faithful first Commander- 
in-chief of our Grand Army of the Republic, General 
John A. Logan, inspired by this appropriate commemor- 
ative respect to our heroic head, proclaimed such a dec- 
oration as a dutiful observance, that should be established 
as a national memorial occasion, and he therefore se- 
lected and proclaimed May 30th as the choicest day of 
the year for this purpose. 

There is no day in the calendar of the celebrant 
daysof our Republic, that so impressively brings out and 
recites in reverential pathos the history of the rise and 
development of our grand Republic as does May 30th. 
It vividly animates our reflection, and arouses our vig- 
ilance to guard well the achievements of the past and 
to advance with prudential wisdom In extending the 
blessings of liberty to ourselves and to all mankind. 

So we meet in patriotic devotion when the sunshine 
and climate are gentle, when the leaves typify youthful 
strength, when the grass is luxuriant and the flowers are 
competing with themselves (for they have no other com- 
petitors) in rivalry of their beauty against their fragrance, 
and giving both to us, that they, more eloquent than 
words, may be offered as expressions of our honor and 
our love for the bravest, the most chivalrous soldiers the 
world ever beheld, the rank and file of the great Army 
of American Freemen. 

The sweet, aromatic fiowers strewn this day on the 
graves of our valiant defenders send their perfume heaven- 
ward to the spirit, of our loved ones over there, who 
imbibe the Incense and smilingly reflect back to us the 
faces of our revered and cherished Washington and his 
compatriots, Montgomery, Stark, Barry, Paul Jones, 
Warren, Jefferson, Sullivan, Patrick Henry, Paine, Frank- 
lin, and their allies in the Revolutionary War, and. In the 



formation of our Republic, and of their maintaining and 
guarding defenders of our national trust, the immortal 
Lincoln, Grant, Sheridan, Sherman, Hancock, Shields, 
Farragut, Thomas, Garfield, Alulligan, Meagher, and of 
all the grand heroes of sword and gun, of gun-boat and 
vessel, of field and hospital, and all who nobly sacrificed 
their lives in doing faithful duty for our freedom and 
the defense of our national integrity. 

Wherever in Death's serene embrace there sleeps a 
soldier or sailor of this Republic, whether his eternal 
rest came to him on battlefield, in prison, or from suffer- 
ing beyond his years, at last yielding to an unrelenting 
command, no matter the spot "where valor sleeps," above 
his lowly mound will gather those who revere his memory 
and love him and what he did for man and country, and 
with the fragrant blossoms of springtime, sanctified with 
tears, bedeck the portals of their narrow abode. From 
country, hamlet, village, from town and city, throughout 
this Republic and beyond its borders, in solemn proces- 
sion, will move the living patriots to pay respect to our 
cherished dead, who, their battles fought, are now at peace- 
ful rest. 

O! Duty, revered by man's devotion and blessed by 
woman's tears, may the time never come when thy holy 
purpose shall be lost by neglect or cursed by the wave 
of forgetfulness; but, as the ages come and go, may the 
sons and daughters of this Republic, standing by the 
holy dust of patriots, renew the sacred pledge of our 
adorable Lincoln, that, come what may, "this govern- 
ment of 'the people, by the people, and for the people 
shall not perish from the earth." 

Hallowed Be Their Names and History. 

Hallowed be the names and history of the creators of 
our matchless Republic and of its loyal defenders, who 
periled their lives, their all, for man against Mammon, 

—8— 



for liberty against tyranny. The cost was appalling, but 
the blessings to civilization were innumerable. A partial 
comprehension of the great cost, work, and suffering may 
be realized by a few statistics from the official records 
of our Government. The total number of men in the 
Army and Naval service, in 1776, in the War of the 
Revolution, lasting six years, was 89,651. The actual 
number of men engaged varied as necessity required, as 
many of the men returned to their homes to cultivate 
their farms and raise supplies for the Army, and would 
again return for duty as soldiers; in fact, every available 
man and most of the women of the revolting Colonies 
were at all times subject to military duty, and faithfully 
did it, as required; so that, while the army forces seemed 
to change in number, those engaged were the same, some- 
times more and sometimes less, as necessity demanded . 
The whole number of men actually engaged in military 
duty during that mighty crucial period, that determined 
whether there was such a thing possible as independent 
freedom for man ani woman as proclaimed in the im- 
mortal Declaration, is estimated at 154,000. 

Magnitude, Age, and Service of Our Heroes. 
In the War of 181 2 with Great Britain there were 
enlisted 471,622. In the victorious War with Mexico in 
1846 there were 161,321 men in service In the various 
Indian and other small wars, total estimate up to April 
1st, 1 861, 900,000 men had served in our Army. From 
April 12, 1 861, to the close of the Civil War of the Re- 
bellion, 2,778,204 boys and men were enlisted, of the 
following ages: 

Those 10 yea rs of age 25 

Those II years of age and under__ 38 

Those 12 years of age and under. _ 225 

Those 13 years of age and under. _ 300 

Those 14 years of age and under.. 1^523 

Those 15 years of age and under.. 104,9^7 

—9— 



Those i6 years of age and under. _ 231,051 
Those 17 years of age and under.. 844,981 
Those 18 years of age and under. _ 1,151,453 
Those 21 years of age and under. _ 2,1 59,798 

Those 22 years of age. and over 618,511 

Those 25 years of age and over 46,626 

Those 44 years of age and over 16,071 

Total 2,778,204 

The grand total of enlisted men during all our, wars 
up to July 1st, 1890, was 3,678,204; in the Spanish- 
American War, 678,000; in the World European W^ar, 
over 4,000,000 were enrolled. 

The estimated fatalities from Bunker Hill to the 
close of the Rebellion, in killed, wounded, and death 
from other causes incidental to Army and Naval service, 
were over 1,000,000, out of a total enrollment of 3,678,204, 
or a loss of 30 per cent. This was not all of the sacrifice 
and cost of the inestimable boon of our liberties. During 
the War of the Rebellion, from 1861 to i866,- over 300,000 
lives were lost in the field service, and over 500,000 were 
wounded, maimed, and made helpless in the line of their 
duty, whose lives were greatly shortened and their op- 
portunities and hopes in civil life blasted; there was not 
a man who experienced actual service in the field who 
did not contract or incur injuries or disabilities of some 
character, that he would not have otherwise received 
in civil or domestic life, that made his remaining days 
a painful burden, with sacrificed opportunities and an 
abbreviated career. 

Not Excelled in All History. ' 

There is not in preceding human history such an 
evidence of devotion to country as that exemplified by 
the patriots of our Republic, who out of a military pop- 
ulation of 5,625,723 men, in 1861, there responded to the 
call of Father Abraham 2,778,204 men — boys, who with 



their lives In their hands volunteered to do mortal battle, 
to do or die, for conscience and country, showing that 
nearly one-half of our male military oitlzenshlp between 
the ages of 14 or 45 actually entered military service. 
These figures are Intensified In their force when we find, 
by the report of the Provost Marshal General, that but 
one-half of the military population (that is, men and 
boys between the ages of 18 and 45) was available; the 
other half being exempt from physical defects and other 
causes. It will be seen that there were actually mustered 
into the United States military service, from April, 1861, 
to April, 1865, a number of men equal to the whole 
number liable for military duty at the opening of the 
Civil War. 

At the same ratio of available ani responsive pa- 
triots, an army of volunteers of 35.000,000 could be mo- 
bili ed for our defense to-day, that would successfully re- 
sist any invading force or suppress any Insurrection that 
might threaten our safety as a nation. 

The tremendous sacrifice and pain that these statis- 
tics portray dazzles and dazes the thoughtful meditation 
of anyone who is appreciative; shuddering and animating 
sadness overshadows exalting admiration in the reflection 
on the affectionate ambitions annulled, hope destroyed, 
the ties of family and kindred sundered and homes shat- 
tered; on the fatiguing marches, distress and suffering 
in field and camp, the restless nights and days unsheltered 
from the elements, storms, rain, sleet, frost, and snow, 
or the scorching sun's rays, and pestered with inclement 
w^eather and the increments of army life; vermin that 
infests and poisons; often with only the canopy of clouds 
for a covering and the sod for a bed, with the indescrib- 
able horrors of battle, distracting wounds, hospital misery 
and agony, endured by this vast army of 2,778,204 brave 
defenders of our country and our flag; all this was ex- 

— II — 



perlenced on hundreds of American battlefields for the 
establishment and preservation of this Republic of ours. 

"Hail, regal heroes of all our wars! Your names shall 

ever be 
In glory engraved on Honor's roll — beloved by all the 

free; 
Each heart that throbs for freedom a sacred book shall 

keep 
For freedom's volunteers, who fought on land or on the 

deep." 

Of the 2,778,204 enlisted men of the Civil War, less 
than 222,000 are now living, over two and a half million 
have been transferred to the eternal bivouac of our com- 
rades over there, and those remaining are passing over 
at the rate of 2,000 or more per month. The time is not 
far distant when final taps will be sounded for the last 
survivor of that greatest of all human strifes, that shall 
ever remain unparalleled in magnitude of accomplishments. 

Liberty Ungained in the World War. 
The World War conscripted army, was called forth 
to vindicate our alleged neutral international rights on 
the high seas, but specifically to extend the blessing of our 
glorious liberty and self-determination to all humanity, 
the right to govern themselves, not as others might choose, 
but as the people themselves should wish to be governed. 
President Wilson in his declaration of war so decreed in 
his fourteen sacred points — with no purpose of conquest, 
no aggrandizement; not for greed or avarice, but alone 
for freedom to all humanity, and the displacement of 
dynasty and monarchy. This declaration was accepted 
by Great Britain, France, Italy, and Belgium. Our brave 
boys went and conquered— victorlouslv, as our Army and 
Navy always do. They saved the armies of England 
and France, and they conquered the German dynasty — 
destroyed it. But they failed to gain the liberty guaran- 
teed, of the right of self-government, of self-determination . 

— 12 — 



See Ireland, a small nation, for seven hundred years strug- 
gling for the right to govern herself, free and independent. 
That she fought for under President Wilson's delusion, 
declaring war with Germany, All that they truly fought 
for was vainglorious, except the German defeat. All 
else vanished at Versailles' debauching manipulation, by 
Great Britain's dictation. We accomplished all for which 
we fought. 

That gigantic army of 1861-1865, unequaled in all 
history, was composed of young men mostly under 21 
years of age and nearly 50 per cent under 18 years of 
age. They came from the farms, the shops, the stores, 
the offices, and the schools; they came from Ireland and 
Germany to help us. 

"The shadows of my comrades I loved so long ago 
Are flitting in my vision, their faces well I know; 
And from the roar of battle I hear their voices rise, 
To mingle with our triumph and echo in the skies." 

Undiminishing glory and imperishable adoration of 
eternal praise is everlastingly due and will always be 
fervently given the gallant and heroic fathers of the 
Revolution and of the War of 1812, of Mexico, and of 
Spain and the Philippines, and the World W^ar in Europe ; 
but it is no discredit to them, in the truthful declaration, 
that all they stood for and bravely battled for victoriously, 
the men of the Civil War stood for and defended, and 
made possible the Spanish-American and German War 
victories, and, in addition thereto, the Civil War of 186 1 
to 1866 abolished human slavery and made an inseparable 
nation, one and indivisible. Were it not for our glorious 
victory in 1865 we could not have engaged in the late 
wars with Spain and Germany. Our great victory em- 
blazoned liberty to light, the hope of the enslaved and 
oppressed and downtrodden everywhere. We opened the 
doors of opportunity, with equal chances and rights to 

—13— 



all the industrious and ambitious, so that they who would 
might live and prosper. 

A Victory FOR the Van. uisiied. 
The victory of the Civil War was a victory for the 
vanquished foe, as well as for the victor. It did more 
for commerce, for labor and for all industries, for all 
classes, for all business, for all churches, for education, 
for all character of development, for liberty, and for all 
humanity than any preceding victory since the dawn of 
light. The world was blessed more from our awful san- 
guinary victory than by any crisis or action since the 
victorv of the Cross, alone excepted. 

"Then we should never prove faithless 
To the gallant blood they shed. 
Our foes have been forgiven. 

But we shall never forget our dead." 

Alarming Danger. 

Dangers are now insidiously seeking to gain in peace 
all lost in wais against us. Patriots, arouse to this most 
fearful intrigue. The pro-British Anglicans, invisible Tor- 
ies of the speculative monarchial strain of the plutocratic 
class, gormandizing persons who fear the common people 
and profit by an intrenched, invisible government con- 
trol, were over thirty per cent in the Colonies, and their 
generation, augmented by emigration and enriched so- 
cieties, are dangerously with us still, and have been and 
are now more invidiously than ever inveigling their pro- 
British propaganda into our literature, through our schools 
and publications of press and magazines, disparaging and 
deflecting our Revolutionary fathers and all they con- 
tended victoriously for in severing themselves from the 
tyranny of Great Britain, and are now trying to delete 
our immortal Declaration of Independence and our Star- 
spangled Banner and Washington's Farewell Address, and 
urge the abandonment of the celebration of our National 

—14— 



Independence Day July 4th, until now it is almost an 
uncelebrated holiday. I seriously admonish you to be- 
ware of these intriguing methods of nullifying our glorious 
historv of Independence, by constant vigilance, in actively 
suppressing such disloyalty to our social history and in 
maintaining our reverence for the attainments through 
cherished sacrifices for our sacred liberties in the preserva- 
tion of them through studious and alert patriotism for 
the fundamental principles of our matchless Republic. 

The West Transformed and Made a 
>nEW World. 

This western land has all been transformed under 
and bv progressive civilizing settlements of persistent in- 
dustrial developers, that have turned this once barren land 
into the most fertile fields of enriching production, through 
the beneficent influence of Christian devotion, cultivated 
here, through the developing laws and inspiration of your 
soldier-modeled and built State, until you have here a 
modern-built city of peace, prosperity, culture, comfort, 
refinement, and competency, doing unto others as ye 
would that others should do unto you, and doing it in 
advance of the other, making it an ideal Christian abode 
of schools, churoh€,s, and justice, successful in all the 
lawful pursuits of civil life, where an injury to one in- 
habitant is the concern of all, "bearing each other's bur- 
dens and sharing each other's joys." This was all wrought 
through the development following the glorious victory 
of the appalling Civil War; for, had the Rebellion un- 
fortunately succeeded, there would be no stable and de- 
veloping government here under one flag and centrifical 
Republic, but, instead of a united nation, we would have 
four or five confederated governments, small so-called 
republics, but really dynasties like turbulent Mexico, 
none having confidence sufficient to make great industrial, 
inventive, and educational development. But our di- 

—15— 



vinely blessed victory at Appomatox, made us a nation, 
one and inseparable forever, with one flag, one country, 
and one God; giving us unlimited credit and confidence 
that inspired unprecedented development. To prove this, 
let me point out to you some of the gigantic developments 
since the close of our Civil War, as this is the time and 
place to exemplify the blessing that came to us through 
the sacrifice and valor of those whose lives and death 
we to-day commemorate by these ceremonies. 

Unprecedented Accomplishments. 

At the victorious close of the War of the Rebellion 
there were less than fifty miles of railway west of the 
Missouri River; now there are more miles of railway west 
of the Missouri River than there were on all the earth 
prior thereto. 

There are to-day more products of the soil west of 
the Mississippi River than was produced from all the 
earth prior to the Civil War. 

There are more gold, silver, and precious and crude 
minerals and metals produced west of the Mississippi 
River to-day than were produced from all the earth prior 
to the Civil W^ar. 

There are more and better educational institutions 
west of the Alleghany Mountains to-day than there were 
on all the earth prior to the Civil War. 

There are more churches west and north of the AUe- 
ghanles to-day than there were on all the globe prior to 
the Civil War. 

And so I could go on demonstrating without limit 
or exhaustion. 

After the Civil War victory at Appomatox, the en- 
terprising, inventive genius, by our protective patent laws 
and secure government, was inspired, as was idle capital, 
or money that was hidden and hoarded, and they all 

— 16— 



became active, and the following great and Incompre- 
hensible inventions and developments ensued: 

1. The invention, manufacture, and laying of the world- 

connecting Atlantic cables. 

2. The promotion and construction of the steel continent - 

binding Pacific railway systems. 

3. The telephone systems. 

4. The electric development of lighting and heating 

power. 

5. The marvelous railway constructions that connect the 

country, cities, and towns together with bands of 
steel. 

6. The mighty engineering feats in bridge constructions 

across our greatest rivers and waterways at New 
York and over the Mississippi and Missouri and 
other great water-courses. 

7. Tunneling under the greatest rivers at New York 

and elsewhere. 

'8. The elevated railways and subway railways, traveling 
by rail above and below the surface of the earth. 

9. The gigantic, most destructive and Irresistible water- 
conquering naval constructed armored war ves- 
sels and privately owned commercial floating city 
vessels. 

10. The submarine and under-water torpedo, war boats 

to fight destructively under water. 

11. The monstrous and incomprehensible dam construc- 

tions, harnessing the waste waters for serviceable 
power and for irrigating and reclaiming arid and 
desert lands. 

12. The mighty reservoir constructions to reserve and 

husband the wasting waters, and utilizing the same. 

—17— 



13- The phonograph, or talking machine and singing ma- 
chine, by the wizard Edison 

14. The leviathan elevators and grain storehouse improve- 

ments. 

15. The typewriter and computing cash registers. 

16. The type-setting machine, printing presses, and print- 

ing machinery. 

17. The bicycle, tricycle, and motorcycle- 

18. The automobile. 

19. The aeroplanes, or flying machines. 

20. Wireless telegraphy. 

21. Multiple telegraphy. 

22. Innumerable labor-saving and time-saving, econom- 

ical farming machinery too numerous to specify. 
2\. The eighth wonder of human accomplishment, the 
mighty Panama Canal, unprecedented. 

24. The revised and Improved conditions and systemat- 

izing of every line of business and financial affairs- 

25. And hundreds of other kinds of economic labor-saving 

and time-saving expediting machinery. 

Also bewildering improvements in armament, gun- 
nery, and life-destroying equipments for war prepara- 
tions, guns that will carry shells and other explosives 
twenty miles, and perfecting aimy regulations, as well as 
naval and hospital and sanitary perfections, that make 
war more destructive than ever before and far more hor- 
rible. These and many other improvements are the In- 
spired fruits of our victories in war and in peace, the 
results of the valorous sacrifices of the men and women 
we to-day commemorate and glorify. 

It is for these and other blessings to man and coun- 
try that we offer our tribute of praise and shall continue 
to do so while loyalty and patriotism have an abiding 

—18— 



place in the hearts and minds of the men and women of 
America and the civihzed world. 

Iowa Was a Soldier State. 

Yon sent nearly 78,000 volunteers from this brave 
State. This is nearly four times as many as Kansas sent, 
but she sent as many as she had men able to bear arms; 
but there settled in Kansas after the close of the Civil 
War over 125,000 ex-Union- and many ex-Confederate sol- 
diers from all over this united nation, and there was not 
a convention or legislature up to 1890 that nearlv two- 
thirds of its members were not ex-Union soldiers; they 
made our Constitution and by-laws, and they are the best 
on earth to-day. 

''There are heroes of peace, as well as of war." And 
the pioneers of Iowa who came to these plains, as our 
fathers crossed the sea, to make the West, as they did 
the East, the homestead of the free, they denied thepi- 
selves Eastern comfortS;, they endured all, they suffered 
all, to remain here through drouth and pestilence, to 
sternly and humanely make this, as it is, the grandest 
commonwealth one earth, of which we are all swelled with 
pride, and we cherish our pioneers for the blessings we 
to-day enjoy, and we honor and commemorate them 
jointly in all these our memorial exercises. 

In all these progressive achievements Iowa did her 
steadfast and valiant part, from her earliest days and in 
the crucial test for our preservation as a united nation 
and the abolishment of slavery. The loyal and patriotic 
people of your magnificent State from its undeveloped 
conditions, rallied to the call of the immortal Lincoln to 
the defense of our Republic without reservation of money 
or supplies. The inspiring memory of its men and meas- 
ures attracted my profoundest admiration, and its history 
comes to me in the most adorable recollection; the dis- 
tinguished gladiators of the unconquerable cast of mind 

—19— 



and courage that Iowa produced to make our glorious 
victory possible. I recall that stalwart war governor, 
Samuel J. Kirkwood, and his successor, Governor William 
M. Stone, whose address to your tenth general assembly 
arouses to-day the intensest patriotism and ought to be 
again read bv every true patriot of this Republic, as it is 
a tocsin, sounding call to vigorous loyalty; and General 
Nathaniel N. Baker, your war adjutant general, an ex- 
emplary soldier and commanding organizer; and. the fine 
heroic commanders, Generals A. C Dodge and Granville 
M. Dodge; and the great soldier, General W. W. Belknap, 
the adorable victor of many battles; and General D. R. 
Henderson; and the great jurists and exemplary judges. 
Tames Harlan, Henry C Caldwell, and A. J. McCrary; 
and the distinguished statesmen, Honorable William B. 
Allison and William P. Fessenden, John P. Irish, John 
A. T. Hull, and the Clarksons; and your distinguished 
senator, Honorable A. B. Cummlngs; and many others 
of renown in the historic development of your great State, 
most of whom I personally knew and cordially regard 
them each highly. 

Those who gave their lives for us, 
But who to-day lie in the dust, 
We honor now with praise to God, 
Who gave them to us, of noble blood. 

May generations yet to come 
Their hallowed memory still proclaim; 
And while the earth rolls on in space, 
May freedom e'er maintain Its place. 

May we with equal courage true 
The duties now before us do, 
Till from on high a voice Is heard, 
*'Come thou unto thy sure reward." 

Our Generosity, Forgiving, Yet Not 
Forgetting. 

Iowa, with the North and East, has shown the most 



generous consideration for our revolting and misguided 
ex-Confederates. We have acted the part of the for- 
giving brother; they were not persecuted, their property 
was not confiscated, as has been done by other victorious 
military combatants, by foreign governments, leaving 
nothing to the capturfed foes, except the possible enslaved 
right to live. Not so with us: we adopted the advice 
of the Immortal Lincoln, who so eloquently declared, 
that "The mystic chords of memory, stretching from 
every battlefield and patriot's grave to every living heart 
and hearthstone, all over this broad land, when again 
touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of 
our nature, shall swell the chorus of the Union for a 
united, peaceful and happy people. With malice toward 
none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as 
God gives us to see the right, let us strive to bind up 
the Nation's wounds, and to care for him who bore the 
battle and for his widow and orphans, to do all which 
may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among 
ourselves and with all nations." 

Also, the gallant, fraternal admonition of our great 
commander, General U. S. Grant, who said to them at 
the surrender cA General Robert E. Lee and his army 
at Appomatox: "Retain your side-arms and your horses? 
return to your homes, be good, and let 's have peace. 
We appreciate the self-inflicted misfortunes of our South- 
ern brothers and sisters, through their ill-advised, un- 
fortunate curse, that drenched our fair land in blood 
and tears, and made waste and desolate their own homes. 
We sympathized with them and did more than was or 
could be expected of us to help them to help themselves 
and to assuage their grief, and to restore prosperity to 
them and their children; this we have done far better 
than they ever could have done for themselves, had they 
been successful In their cruel and unrighteous rebellion. 

21 — 



We restored to them their previous civil rights, by 
granting to them all general amnesty, thereby admitting 
them into equal citizenship and fellowship in all political 
rights with ourselves, the same as they had before they 
rebelled, allowing them to take equal seats in our legis- 
lative councils; this was all unprecedented in all former 
history of governments. 

But Kansas went still farther, and elected one of 
their ex-Confederate commanders. Colonel W. A.. Harris, 
a member of Congress at large, and then elected him to 
the United States Senate, and came very near electing 
him governor. He was respected and honored regardless 
of his service in trying to destroy our Union and to change 
our flag, and to maintain human slavery as an oligarchy 
on this continent. He made a creditable representative. 
No Southern State has ever forgotten their prejudices 
long enough to confer like honors upon any of our Civil 
War veterans. Not only this, but they are proving un- 
grateful and recreant in not having accepted our National 
Constitution and laws, and applying them in good faith, 
in obeying and enforcing them; instead of doing so, they 
are nullifying the fourteenth and fifteenth amendments 
to our National Constitution, by disfranchising Negroes 
and denying to them their valid rights as electors and 
voters, and in denying to them an education as guaran- 
teed by these amendments and the laws for their execu- 
tion under them. 

Disloyalty Must Cease. 

This is disloyalty to our constitutional government. 
This they are doing in the face of the well-known fact, 
that it cost more in sacrifice, life, blood, and money to 
secure the adoption of these two amendments to our 
Constitution than all the other parts of the Constitu- 
tion and our laws combined; they are indeed more blind 
to their future safety and happiness than they were in 

— 22 — 



1 86 1, If they conscientiously believe they can carry on 
their nullification of the Negroes' constitutional rights, 
and of respect to our flag, and our accomplishments in 
war and peace, without bringing upon themselves another 
crisis, which I pray to high Heaven may be averted, 
but it will surely come If they unwisely persist in their 
unlawful nullification. The Negroes are with them and 
with us, and we must protect and improve them and their 
condition, and make them useful citizens, which they 
are capable of; or, by denying them their rights and their 
education and ambitious development, make them vicious 
and dangerous, which Is a natural result of a denial of 
their lawful and God-given rights. We must tolerate 
and Improve them; we can not exterminate or deport 
them. The past experience of our Southern brothers 
should cause them to reflect and change their misconduct 
towards their Negroes, with whom they are far more 
familiar than we of the North are, and by giving them 
their lawful rights make them more useful and agreeable 
inhabitants and citizens, thereby preventing their hatred 
and misconduct. 

We have no animosities to gratify against our South- 
land citizens ur their valiant veterans of their ill-fated 
Confederacy. We have only a fraternal spirit toward all 
who heroically fought for the unholy separation of our 
national unity, now one In love and union. We now onh' 
feel grateful for their error, that enabled us to be what 
we are, without which we might never have made the 
glorious record we did. They were brave men and women, 
misguided by England Into a forlorn and hopeless con- 
test; they can, and they will, mingle In the fraternal joys 
of our mutual salvation from dismemberment of our na- 
tional integrity, and unite with us in a glorified Republic 
of unequaled prosperity for all. North, South, East, and 
West, with the solemn prayer that never may ill-temper 



or contentions or dissension ever again cause the sheddinp- 
of blood between the peace-loving people of our United 
States. 

'•May no more the war-cry sever, 
Nor winding rivers be red. 
O God, banish our anger forever, 

As we laurel the graves of our dead." 

'"Under the sod and the dew, 
Waiting the judgment day. 
Love and tears for the Blue, 
Tears and love for the Gray." 

Our Dearest Queens. 
Our guide, our hope, our helper, our best 
friend — our mother; our wives, our daughters, 
our sisters, our sweethearts, our kindred, the 
noblest gift of God to man — our women; 

Without „them the armies, both North and South, 
would have failed. They kept alive the rebellion in the 
South. They were our inspiration, hope, and support 
for our Union Army; they kept alive the spirit of patriot- 
ism at home; they maintained the home, the farm, the 
shop, the store, the school, the church — they kept the 
whole machinery of business and social life in active 
operation at home. Their spirit of sacrificial patriotism 
inspired us most to duty, to victory or death, in camp 
and on battlefield. They took our part and places at 
home; they endured all losses and suffering with fortitude 
and devotional love, never halting, never wavering, never 
despairing. 

Our heroic mothers, wives, daughters, and sisters, 
with the loyal women of America, were our Joan of Arc 
during the most somber hours of this Republic, and are 
to us our regal queens, deserving the rarest crowns of 
heavenly luster that ever filigreed a human head. 

—24— 



They were and are to us, and should be to every 
faithful American, the most sacred blessing to man. 

"She who binds her warrior's sash 
^Wlth smile that well her pain dissembles, 
The while beneath her drooping lash 

The starry tear-drop hangs and trembles, 
Though Heaven alone records the tear 

And Fame may never know her story, 
Her heart has shed a drop as dear 

As e'er bedewed the field of glory." 



UNVEILING MONUMENT, AT THE BEAUTIFUL 
LINWOND CEMETERY 
TO 

EMILY SOPHRONIA HITCHCOCK CONEY 

The sisters of the Eastern Star and other allied so- 
cieties gave their formal service at the grave and monu- 
ment, and Patrick H. Coney spoke as follows: 

Emily Sophronia Hitchcock Coney, to whose hon- 
or and revered memory you have "to-day unveiled an 
enduring granite and bronze memorial, bearing an exact 
profile of her ever-charming living features, when last 
seen In her vigor of life, and an Inscription of her life 
and that of her father, mother, and brother. This monu- 
ment stands, upon the beautiful plot selected by herself 
and her beloved father, Benjamin Hicthcock, in 1873, 
and was subsequently enlarged by herself In 1882 so as 
to own all of Lot 216. This beautiful plot, facing the 
drive alongside of ''Honey Creek," Is In symphony wnth 
her sweet, poetic, s'ubllme nature and disposition, por- 
traying her abiding faith in calm serenity, of an enchant- 
ing rest of a wxary, worn body In heavenly repose with 
God. She came Into this life at Truxton, New York, 
on November 24, 1844, the daughter of Benjamin and 
Deborah Hitchcock. Her mother died in 1849, i^ Trux- 
ton, New York, and her father then married Sophronia, 
a sister of her mother. Benjamin Hitchcock was one 
of the early pioneers of BInghamton and Cortland, 
New York, that sturdy stock that victoriously fought 
for freedom from Great Britain In the Revolution In 
1776, and again in 1812; when Benjamin was given birth, 
the battles of the lakes and land were being fought 
against the British. Benjamin Hitchcock, with his w^ife 
Sophronia and his daughter Emily S. and his soa Alfred 

—26— 



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EMILY SOPHRONIA HITCHCOCK CONEY. 



B., was attracted to the possibilities and loyalty of Iowa 
during the Civil War of i86l and 1865, and soon there- 
after moved to Boone, Iowa, and here he engaged in 
the grain business, which he succeeded in, and was well 
and prominently known and universally respected as a 
moral Christian and loyal citizen. He died in this city 
in 1882, his wife Sophronia preceding him in 1873 to her 
heavenly home. His son, Alfred Benjamin Hitchcock, 
married and reared a family in this city, and was for 
years successfully engaged in the dairy and milk busi- 
ness. He died at the home of his sister, Emily S. H. 
Coney, in Topeka, Kansas, July 22d, 1918, aged 71. He 
is at rest here, where I interred him by the side of his 
father and sister. 

The glorious record of Iowa in war and peace was 
always an admiration to me, and, as a sequence, her 
charming, patriotic women, like Mrs. George F. Evans, 
the author of our Memorial Day, attracted my loving, 
wishing eyes and soul, with a keen sense of their accom- 
plishments for a soul helpmate, and, as all good things 
come to them that wait patiently for guidance of Provi- 
dence, there came into my life, at mature years of under- 
standing and appreciation, this ideal child of God, Emily 
Sophronia Hitchcock, and we united in holy, loving mat- 
rimony our travails and joys on July 28th, 1886, and I 
took her from her many loving and worshiping friends 
in this city, where she was well and affectionately known 
as a Christian helper, worker, writer, and patriot. I 
took her to Topeka, Kansas, where I had lived for many 
years, and we made it our delightful home. She became 
an active helper in my office and legal practice; also in 
all patriotic work of our city and State, and became 
prominently identified with our most popular fraternal, 
literary, and social promotions. But few of her sex in 
Kansas gained the love and respect that she earned from 

—29— 



all with whom she came in contact. She left a heritage 
of the most honored name and of valuable writings and 
collections to be compiled and published. Her collec- 
tions are .a museum in themselves. She was ceaseless 
and tireless in patriotic service, and in helping others, 
regardless of her own sacrifice. She lived and died in 
this spirit, to which she was devoted, and oft expressed: 

"Lord, help me to live from day to day 
In such a self-forgetting way. 
That even when I kneel to pray, 
My prayer shall be for others." 

She humbly bore her sacrifice of suflpering and pain, 
That others' wrongs might thereby pleasure gain; 
Her cross was her crown of glory, wrought by duty done 
In grandeur, love and service for everyone. 

She came back to her childhood home to repose for- 
ever, after a distinguished service for home, her family, 
her friends, her fraternities, her city, State, and country, 
leaving a renowned record ever to be cherished by all 
that knew her. For to know her was to love her, and 
to love her was but to praise. 

*'0 spotless woman, in a world of shame, 
With splendid and silent scorn, 
Gone back to God as white and pure as you came, 
The queenliest of heroines born!" 

And now there be her praise of her love-written record, 
Her face, name, and epitaph graven on the stone; 

The things she lived for, let them be her story, 
And she be remembered by what she has done. 

I now leave her monumented abode to the patriotic, 
faithful care of you loyal people she so devotedly loved 
and longed to rest with. May succeeding generations 
be as dutiful to her memory as she was to others, and 
as I would and will be while alive. I entrust her tomb 
to you while I am far away. Having rendered my full 
■earthly duty to my dearest loved one, I leave her to 

—30— 



her rest with her friends and her God till we meet again 
soon over there. 

In Parting. 

I thank you for your courteous attention, and hope 
that what I have said may be deemed worthy of your 
profoundest consideration and application. I am glad 
to have had the privilege of visiting this place now dear 
to me again, and I pray this may not be the last time. 

In this parting, I invoke of the Divinity the preserva- 
tion of our Republic, in its progressing refulgency, and 
the salvation to all our people, the peaceful and prosper- 
ous possession of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, 
in the pure, untrammeled enjoyment of the exfrcise of 
their citizenship, regardless of the press syndicates or 
other combines to hobble and control our franchise; and 
at all times doing unto and exacting of others truth, hon- 
esty, and honor in their Individual and public conduct, 
bearing In mind always that there is more In the salvation 
of a republic than the mere absence of a king or emperor. 

"Freedom Is a trust from God, 

To true men's guardianship consigned; 
Who bow to brute Oppression's rod 
Are slaves and traitors to their kind." 
There never should be in manly, upright Americans 
any fear to do right, regardless of party or power. Let 
them that have earned freedom, peace, and prosperity 
in this land, that valor saved and made the most pros- 
perous of all the earth, never fear to speak independently 
and dauntlessly their convictions, honestly and truth- 
fully, and, above all, exercise their right of franchise 
accordingly, for God and country; for 

*'Only the truth that in life we have spoken, 

Only the seed that on earth we have sown, — 
These pass onward when we are forgotten, 
Fruits of the harvest of what we have done." 

Adieu, till we meet again, here or hereafter I 
—31— 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



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